Activision has taken down a compilation video posted on YouTube depicting Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain performing tracks from the likes of Bon Jovi and Public Enemy in the publisher’s Guitar Hero 5, Kotaku reports.

The YouTube user, corporalgregg3, briefly described the situation on his page, saying, “Yeah, my last account was permanently disabled due to (I think) Activision. Right before my account was shut down, the Kurt Cobain vid was removed due to copyright claim by Activision Games Inc.”

Ah, Activision. Just when I think you can’t possibly do something else to show how cute and cuddly you are, you go and do something like this. I mean, what exactly did this video show that the hundreds of thousands of other Guitar Hero videos on YouTube don’t? Anything gameplay related is fair game, and beyond that, the videos would most likely qualify as criticism and/or parody, which, last time I checked, qualified as protected speech. If Activision does have serious copyright issues, then it would only make sense for the company to pull every last video off of YouTube that features any footage from any Activision game. But somehow, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

No. Activision’s beef is with the gratuitous depiction of Cobain singing as many un-Nirvana-like songs as possible, even though the publisher has stood firmly behind its decisions regarding Cobain’s appearance in the game, most notably in the face of a potential lawsuit on behalf of Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love. By having this video removed, it appears that Activision is backpedaling a bit on its previous confidence on this issue.

And by the way, I found a number of videos still on YouTube depicting the very thing that caused corporalgregg3’s video to be pulled. I guess we’ll have to keep our eyes on those videos now, and wait and see how far Activision is willing to take this whole thing.

Any thoughts on how Activision is handling this situation? I know you probably have nothing but good feelings toward Activision, but dig deep people.